A Drop of Kindness

A drop of kindness within
Turns into an effluence of joy
When a helping hand
Extends to others.

There are no fences
That won’t wither away
When ‘otherness’ fades
In the wake of kindness.

The baggage that fills within,
Emptied never before,
It clears away
When the fences wither.

The foul smell of
The decay within,
It fades away
As the doors are opened.

The great river of compassion,
When it flows from within,
The clogs dissolve
With efforts none.

The peaceful bliss that is
Not found upon seeking,
Now, it reveals itself
As the clogs clear away.

A hearth of hatred
Carried within,
Alas! It dries up
The fountain of kindness!

The hate for ‘others’
That you hold within,
It spoils the love
That you hold for kins.

Like the sun-baked fields
In an intense drought,
The burning hate
Scorches the heart.

Even the storks fly off
Leaving the sun-baked fields.
Alienation deepens
As distrust thickens.

When the politics of
Identity and otherness
Divides mankind
With its bluffs so vile,

In the blazing arson
Of the hate within.
Rise venomous serpents
With spreading hoods.

Even the few pears
Hidden for the ones dear,
They are burnt to ruins
By the flames so toxic.

The drops of love
Hidden for the kins,
It is rendered useless
By the venomous hate.

Ominous echos fill within
Like howls in a charnel ground.
The thickening smoke
Smells like burning corpse.

The serpents of wickedness
Slither within.
The eyes of hate
See perils right and left.

When mankind splits
With the politics of identity,
Even kinship does not
Last for long.

When ‘others’ are done with.
Alas! A new guise of hate,
Finds a new ‘other’
From within what was so dear.

As difference leads to
Hate for ‘others’,
‘Within’ too cracks
With difference plenteous.

As distinct ‘others’
Are embraced as ‘equal’,
There sprouts from within
A spell of creative magic.

Let us seek within
For that drop of kindness!
Let that magical river of compassion
Spring from within!

Let it heal
The wounds of yesteryears!
Let us hold
The mankind as one!

The people that arrived here
Through pathways many,
Let them all live
With distrust none!

Let us hold
The ‘many’ as ‘one’,
For the fences of dispute
To wither away!

When ‘many’ folks
Blend together as ‘one’,
The space within each
Expands manifold.

And, the expanse within
That embraces ‘many’
Strengthens the world
With a creative surge.

– Prabodha